Recruiting: Gatewood a Three-Team Battle

Stacey Dean

12/25/2002

<B>Tyrell Gatewood</B>, a 6-1, 190-pound wide receiver, recently became an interesting prospect to watch by electing to take officials to Texas and Oklahoma while remaining a soft verbal to A&M. Gatewood, available for a moment, gave <I>IT</I> some information on his Texas visit during Banquet Weekend as well as his official visit to Oklahoma and, more importantly, told us where he's at in the selection process.</P>

"It was tight," said Tyrell Gatewood about the banquet and awards ceremony for the Longhorn football team. "It wasn't just real special, you know, it was a banquet. But it was cool."

Of course, Gatewood also got the chance to shoot the bull with the players.

"Mike Williams was my host and I've known him for a long time," said the senior with a solid 300-pound bench-press. "I played against him in football. He's real cool. Just hung out with all of the payers and the recruits. Went to Sixth Street and threw out some P. Diddy moves."

And he was high on the coaches, including Mack Brownand his wife Sally.

"Coach Akina is cool," said the senior from Tyler. "I've known him since last year. Coach Drake is laid back, he's cool. Mack Brown and his wife are really cool. Thought they'd act like they were older, but they're pretty cool and they just act like young people. I just had a good time when I hung out with the coaches."

As for the overall rating of his excursion to Austin, Gatewood said, "I'd give Texas a 10! Texas was tight!"

"I'd give them a 6," said the senior wideout with a 4.4 forty when reflecting on his official visit to Oklahoma. "There just won't anything to do. We went to some WWF wrestling tournament and met the wrestlers. It was okay, I guess. Let me just put it this way, it wasn't nothing like Austin."

But are the coaches from Texas still calling?

"Yeah, I just talked to Coach Drake," said Gatewood -- who clocked a 4.17 in the 20-yard shuttle. "And he was real cool. Just told me, 'Take your time and make sure you're making the right decision'. No pressure at all."

According to the nation's No. 21-ranked wideout, he's still mulling over his options and has Texas, OU and A&M in a three-team battle for his commitment. He also said he'll trip to Aggieland on an official before making his final decision.

The 4-star bluechip said to "expect a decision sometime in the middle of January".